NEWS RELEASE

THIS WEEK: Bearcats will take nine athletes to NCAA Division III
championships
Willamette will send nine athletes to the NCAA Division III
national championships, which will be held May 22-24 at St.
Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. (see list below).
Results of the meet can be found on the web at either:
http://web.stlawu.edu/sports/03ncaatrack/ncaatrack.htm
/www.willamette.edu/athletics
http://www.run-down.com/bearcats/wu.php

LAST WEEK: Reece, Muren, Hollingshead and Kassebaum hit NCAA
provisional marks
Jazzmin Reece (So. Sehome HS, Wash.) recorded a personal best of
4,399 points in the heptathlon Friday in the Willamette Multi-Event
held at Charles Bowles Track, provisionally qualifying for the NCAA
Division III championships. Reece’s score easily surpassed the NCAA
provisional standard of 4,100 points and was a vast improvement
over her tally of 4,001 points in the NWC heptathlon on April 15 in
Tacoma, Wash. She finished just nine points shy of Gayle Roth’s
1984 school record of 4,408. Three more Bearcats hit NCAA
provisional qualifying marks during the Willamette Last Chance
Meet, held Friday and Saturday in Newberg and Salem. On Friday
night at George Fox University, Natalie Muren (Fr., McNary HS) and
Aaron Hollingshead (So., David Douglas HS) made provisional times
in distance events. Muren won the 10,000 meters in a time of
36:51.6, which ranks No. 2 all-time in school history. Hollingshead
won the 3,000 steeplechase in 9:22.0, a time that is No. 8 in
Bearcat history. On Saturday at Willamette’s Charles Bowles Track,
Roseann Kassebaum (Fr., Oregon City HS) qualified provisionally for
the national meet by placing fourth in the 400 hurdles in 1:04.64.
That time is a personal best and ranks No. 6 all-time at
Willamette. Also on Saturday, WU’s Alicia Andrews (So., Asotin HS,
Wash.) improved her NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the 800
with a second-place time of 2:13.54. That time is a personal best,
too, and moved her up one spot to No. 3 on the Bearcats’ all-time
list.

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: Nick Symmonds (Fr., Bishop Kelly HS, Idaho) won
the 800 in the Oregon Preview with a school-record and NCAA
automatic qualifying time of 1:51.18. The previous school record in
that event had stood for 45 years after Dale Hartman ran a 1:51.94
in 1958 … in the second NCAA Division III power rankings of the
season, the Willamette men are ranked No. 2 in the nation and the
women are No. 3. The rankings are based on “overall team strength
in a dual meet type scoring” against Division III competition … in
the NWC Championship meet on April 25-26, the Bearcat women set or
improved on 17 all-time WU top 10 marks, while the men set or
improved on seven marks. Shannon McGrane (So., Colville HS, Wash.)
won the 400 hurdles in 1:02.43, breaking Amy Carlson’s 1994 school
record of 1:02.98. The two teams defended both 2002 NWC
championships, combined for 20 individual titles and Kelly Sullivan
was named NWC Coach of the Year for both the men and women … three
Bearcats broke school records in two meets on May 3. Kasey Sorenson
(Sr., Scappoose HS) won the hammer at the Linfield Invitational
with a throw of 150-1, breaking her own 2002 school record and
exceeding the NCAA provisional mark of 147-8. At the Oregon
Twilight in Eugene, Jazzmin Reece (Jr., Sehome HS, Wash.) and Nick
Symmonds (Fr., Bishop Kelly HS, Idaho) each broke a WU record.
Reece won the 100 hurdles in an NCAA provisional qualifying time of
15.08, which broke last year's WU record of 15.13 set by Laura
Leineweber. Symmonds won the prestigious Bill McChesney Jr.
Memorial Twilight Mile in a time of 4:03.85. The time converts to a
3:45.81 in the 1,500, which automatically qualifies him for
nationals and breaks the 1980 school record of David Fleming … at
the Ken Foreman Invitational on May 10, Kasey Sorenson (Sr.,
Scappoose HS) broke her own school record in the hammer, improving
on her previous record of 150-1 with a mark of 152-7 and Jazzmin
Reece (Jr., Sehome HS, Wash.) did the same in the 100 hurdles with
a time of 14.99 … as of May 20, the Bearcat women have broken three
school records and have posted 33 all-time WU top 10 entries. The
Bearcat men have broken two school records (both by Nick Symmonds)
and have registered 19 entries into Willamette’s all-time top 10
lists.